Faculty Bibliography

Measles is preventable: 99% of those who receive the two-step vaccination develop immunity. The measles vaccine uses a live attenuated virus, which means a deactivated virus that can still provoke immunity but no longer get people sick. There is a growing irrational fear of vaccinations that is not connected to fact. This fear leads to disuse of a crucial preventative. While it is understandable that parents are concerned about vaccines their child receives, the measles vaccine requires 100% compliance to effectively prevent reoccurrence and control spread of a deadly disease

Chronic disease management is becoming increasingly important in correctional settings, especially diabetes. We conducted a retrospective chart review of diabetic inmates in San Francisco County Jail and examined the sociodemographic characteristics, markers of disease status, and compliance with jail-specific care guidelines within this setting. We found high rates of compliance with immediate-term care guidelines (e.g., finger-stick glucose and blood pressure checks at intake) but less success in providing the more complex care required for chronic diseases. Inmates' age, race, and gender did not affect likelihood of meeting guidelines

Weeds [Television Program] -- NANCY BOTWIN (Mary-Louise Parker) is struggling to bring up her two sons and maintain the same lifestyle in the wake of her husband's sudden death. She secretly becomes a local pot dealer. Meanwhile, her family's life deteriorates. While Nancy is on a romantic tryst, her older son, 16-year-old Silas (Hunter Parrish), has his girlfriend stay over, and 10-year-old brother Shane (Alexander Gould) observes them having sex. Nancy's pot supplier Heylia (Tonye Patano), mother to a large brood of her own, suggests that family dinners are the 'superglue' that holds families together, and that studies have shown children do better in the long term, with higher test scores and less depression, when families eat together regularly. 'IT'S terrible to wake up in the middle of the night and not know where your mom is,' says Irene Goldenberg, family therapist and professor emeritus of psychiatry at UCLA. In her opinion, a bigger problem than the fact that Nancy isn't home much is that she is lying to her kids about her actions and whereabouts

South Africa has the largest number of H.I.V.-infected people in the world. Its president, Thabo Mbeki, has continually expressed skepticism that H.I.V. causes AIDS, and the country has questioned antiretroviral treatment and delayed providing it to pregnant women and AIDS patients. Other speakers urged training more nurses and health workers in poor countries to deliver the antiretroviral drugs and preventive measures needed to stop the AIDS epidemic. The many international programs that are scaling up efforts to deliver antiretroviral drugs to poor people cannot succeed without large numbers of health workers to monitor the care of AIDS patients. As the conference speakers delivered their remarks, hundreds of Africans, Asians and people from around the world began dismantling the global village created here to promote discussion of H.I.V. One exhibit, called ''Dress Up Against AIDS,'' included 10 dresses by Adriana Bertini, a Brazilian artist, made from thousands of condoms. Nearby were women from the Masaka district of Uganda who displayed their crafts, including mats, straw bowls and drums. In another booth, Kenyan workers showed off sandals and beaded necklaces. In others, attendants handed out pamphlets on programs for H.I.V. and AIDS

In a keynote address, Stephen Lewis, the United Nations' ambassador to Africa for AIDS, said South Africa 'is the only country in Africa whose government continues to propound theories more worthy of a lunatic fringe than of a concerned and compassionate state.' South Africa has the largest number of HIV-infected people in the world. South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki has continually expressed skepticism that HIV causes AIDS, and the country has questioned anti-retroviral treatment and delayed providing it to pregnant women and AIDS patients. Nurses and others involved in the care of AIDS patients often work in unsafe or dangerous conditions, said Dr. Pedro Cahn, the new president of the International AIDS Society, the main organizer of the AIDS conferences. This conference was the largest ever, drawing 26,057 participants. The next AIDS conference will be held in Mexico City in August 2008

The official, Dr. Kevin De Cock, who directs the organization's AIDS program, said Wednesday that around the world an estimated 2.3 million children 15 and under are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and that 800,000 of them needed anti-retroviral drugs to stay alive. Of the 800,000, only 60,000 to 100,000 are receiving therapy. At the same time, De Cock said, fewer than 10 percent of pregnant women with HIV in poor and middle-income countries are receiving the simple regimen of pills that can prevent the transmission of the AIDS virus to their newborns. By contrast, rich countries have virtually eliminated pediatric AIDS. Many critics also said that HIV would develop a resistance to the drugs if people in poor countries did not take them as prescribed. De Cock said the World Health Organization was watching for drug resistance among patients receiving anti-retroviral therapy and that the information would start to become available later this year

The patients, who were also infected with the virus that causes AIDS, were resistant to all first- and second-line drugs for tuberculosis, Dr. Neel R. Gandhi told the 16th International Conference on AIDS. Dr. [Gerald Friedland] estimated that half the patients had picked up their infections at hospitals or clinics. Most of those who died were in the advanced stages of AIDS, he said. Many were relatively young -- the median age was 35 -- and had never been treated for tuberculosis, so they presumably had not developed resistance slowly in themselves, but had caught the extremely resistant strains from someone else. Tuberculosis and infection with the AIDS virus have long been known to be closely intertwined. This year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta reported a total of 347 cases worldwide in which the agency found tuberculosis bacteria resistant to all first- and second-line drugs, including isoniazid, rifampin, ethambutol, streptomycin, kanamycin and ciprofloxacin